Once Upon A Prayer Journal...Day 5

The dork side

All right, Father, where would you have me go with this?

Have fun. Our life together is not all sober reflection. 

Far from it.

Let the reader see the light side.

I have to ask: the words, please.

Jesus Christ is Lord, come in the flesh.  And never hesitate to test the spirit of what you are hearing.

I do not want to offend or presume.

I set up the test, remember? 

In I John 4: 2.

The other one, masquerading as me, might attempt to intimidate you, to keep you from testing; I never will. 

Father, you said to have fun. This is pathetic: I don’t even know how.

Come now, you are giving a dialoguing a bad name. 

I know! And now. . . . I am even more paralyzed.

You know what the sin is.

Pride. . . . I don’t want to dork it up.

You already have.

Great. Welcome to the dork side.

Relax. I will remind you of some of our light times.

The first time that comes to mind is years ago, shortly after we began. I was really angry at you, accusing you of not holding up your end of the bargain. We were acutely short of funds, as I recall (What else is new?), and I blamed you. I went somewhere, where I could shout at you and not be overheard. [Sidebar: I teach others that they might as well scream out loud at you, if that is the way they feel; you already know exactly how frustrated they are, and at what decibel level they would like to express it.  So go ahead; it will do you good to get it out of your system. If necessary, get in the family car and roll up the windows.]

Anyway, I let you have it. Here I was, busting my hump for you, and you were not taking care of my family’s needs. You waited until I finally subsided, then in the ensuing silence I heard you say,

My son, do not mistake me for Saint Nicholas. You will never have as much as you want. You will always have as much as you need.

And that has proven to be the case.  It’s ironic; we actually have less to live on now, than we did back then. But we have enough.  And through these difficult times of straitened circumstances  [that all of us seem to be going through, and which someone’s grandmother likened to “trying to live off the smell of a greased rag”], the important thing is to keep our end of the pipeline open, when we might be tempted to cut back, or tithe off the net, instead of off the first fruits.

Pick up there tomorrow.